| There beneath the August sun
|
| A daring survey undertaken on the fly
|
| Colorado would request
|
| Divert the river water west
|
| For The Uncompahgre Valley was too dry
|
| There’d been one attempt before
|
| And they needed to know more
|
| Than what Bryant saw from base camps on the rim
|
| When the challenge whet their thirst
|
| Two men planned to be the first
|
| To take the canyon floor route cut from deep within
|
| There’s only one way the water flows
|
| Through a passage no one knows
|
| Heading down the Canyon Black
|
| They could never turn their back
|
| Staring down the Barrel of the Gunnison
|
| The Journey started as they planned
|
| With support from a third man
|
| Who hiked the the old trail high above the river’s hood
|
| 'til they came upon a Narrow
|
| At the jaws of the Falls of Sorrow
|
| With one way out, they took the only way they could
|
| Diving deep into the churn
|
| Maybe never to return
|
| The pair could only hope to breathe the air again
|
| The angry river turned and tossed
|
| And the two might have been lost
|
| Deep below the surface of the Gunnison
|
| There’s only one way the water flows
|
| Through a passage no one knows
|
| Heading down the Canyon Black
|
| They could never turn their back
|
| Staring down the Barrel of the Gunnison
|
| Gunnison!
|
| Now the story has been told
|
| And while the river still runs cold
|
| The water gets to where it once had never been
|
| As for whether they escaped
|
| They made it out just bruised and scraped
|
| The two men never would forget the Gunnison
|
| There’s only one way the water flows
|
| Through a passage no one knows
|
| Heading down the Canyon Black
|
| They could never turn their back
|
| Staring down the Barrel of the Gunnison |